Hours after retirement match, Ben Askren challenged Georges St-Pierre

ONE Championship

By Santino Honasan on Nov 27, 2017 10:54 AM

It didn’t take long for Ben Askren to call out Georges St-Pierre. (Photo courtesy of ONE Championship)

Well, that didn’t take long.

Literally the morning after starching Shinya Aoki in just 57 seconds to retain his ONE welterweight world championship, newly-retired Ben Askren called out reigning UFC middleweight world champion Georges St-Pierre.

@GeorgesStPierre how’s the spring weather in Montreal? I hear it’s a nice time to test your true Martial Arts skills

St-Pierre, who recently succesfully returned to competition from a four-year hiatus, is widely-regarded by many as the best welterweight in the sport of mixed martial arts. The Montreal-native had two runs as the UFC welterweight champion, and now currently holds the UFC’s 185-pound strap, making him one of only four fighters to hold a UFC world championship in two weight divisions.

Askren, who has said that he believes himself to have been the “best welterweight in the world for years”, retired undefeated after his successful title defense at ONE: Immortal Pursuit in Singapore and amassed an 18-0 (1) professional record during his career, which spanned over nine years. Askren owns unblemished title runs in both Bellator and ONE Championship.

At one point, Askren and St-Pierre were arguably the world’s top-two 170-pounders in mixed martial arts, and when Askren’s Bellator contract expired, many hoped that he would finally join the UFC and test himself in the promotion’s welterweight shark tank.

Asken the UFC never met eye-to-eye however, and the former Olympian took his talents to Singaporean-based ONE Championship.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now that Askren’s retired, could he and St-Pierre finally cross paths?